Travel Woes

     The last few weeks have been a little hectic in terms of travel.  On the weekend of Jan. 29th, I traveled to Decatur, IL, with a colleague.  We were going to visit two cousins - one on Saturday and the other on Sunday.  It was quite difficult to find flights to the area that were reasonably priced, but we finally decided to fly into Peoria, IL, and drive to Decatur.  Inconvenient, but not too bad.
     What we didn't count on was the suitcase with all our supplies in it not making it from Chicago.  This was not a case of a lost bag - American in Chicago notified American in Peoria that the bag had not made it but would be put on the next flight, so they knew it happened before we did.  We're not sure what happened, because our layover in Chicago was not particularly short, and the bag shouldn't have had far to go to change planes.  Unfortunately, the next flight from Chicago to Peoria wouldn't arrive until 9:30am the next day.  If it did make that flight, it would be driving to our hotel in Decatur, which would take up to another 2 hours.  So, best case scenario, we wouldn't get the bag until 11:30am Saturday.  We were scheduled to see the first family at 9am.  Uh-oh.
     We left our contact information with the American counter in Peoria and proceeded to our hotel in Decatur.  We, being good air travelers wishing to avoid dealing with liquids in our carryons, had put our toiletries in the suitcase.  Yeah, the suitcase that was now somewhere on the tarmac in Chicago.  The clerk at the American counter offered us the "spa in the sky" kit that American has.  For whatever reason, he only gave us one.  I guess he thought we would just share the toothbrush and deodorant.... Of course, our GPS was also in the suitcase, but my colleague and I always print out directions just in case.  Unfortunately, our directions were almost completely wrong.  They literally took us straight to the parking lot of the Caterpillar plant/warehouse facility in Decatur.  Clearly NOT our hotel.  We finally called the hotel to ask where they were located, then we retraced our steps a bit.  Turns out the hotel was in nearby Forsyth, not in Decatur proper.  By the time we made it into our room (yes, we have to share one on these trips when us girls go), it was well past midnight.
     We made it through Friday night with what necessities the hotel and airline kit provided.  First thing in the morning, we called the family to let them know what was going on.  They were understanding and flexible, so we planned to go to their house at 12:30pm. That should give the bag time to make it from Peoria after the flight landed at 9:30.  The clerk had assured us that there wasn't really a reason the bag wouldn't make that first flight.  Well, 12:15 rolled around and we still hadn't gotten a call that the bag was on its way.  We decided to go to the family's house anyway, because we could at least do one of the activities because we always bring the voice recorders in the plane cabin with us. 
     So, we successfully made it to the family's house and met the mother, son, and grandmother.  We settled in to do the interview, and all seemed to be going well.   Three hours later, the voice recorders shut off because they were full.  Neither of us had been shown how to delete old files from them, and we weren't about to experiment and risk losing all the information we'd already gathered.  At this point we still didn't have the suitcase and so could not do anything else with them.  We apologized profusely, and thankfully they were free on Sunday afternoon, so we decided to come back to finish up after seeing the other family.
     Back at the hotel, we transferred the files from the voice recorder onto my computer and then deleted them from the recorders so we could finish taping the interview.  We realized that if we had to do one complete visit (which usually takes around 3-4 hours) plus the bulk of this first visit there was no way we would make it back to Peoria to catch our 6pm flight.  And all of this was assuming the suitcase did show up.  We realized we would have to change our return trip, because changing the flight was cheaper than coming out for another visit.  We checked the flights, and the simplest and cheapest solution was to take an American flight early Monday morning (because my colleague has class at 2pm on Mondays).  Unfortunately, that flight was leaving from Champaign.  So, I called the rental car company to see if I could just take the car there.  Of course the answer was no, not without getting charged over $500 more (for which I would be reimbursed but I would have to pay up front and it takes at least 6 weeks to get reimbursed).  We didn't have much choice. We would have to drive back to Peoria on Sunday once we finished, return the car, pick up another car (at the same counter), and drive the 2 hours to Champaign.  So I made the arrangements and found a hotel for us.
     At 4:30 on Saturday, we finally got the call that the suitcase was almost to Decatur.  We rejoiced, thankful that we would be able to collect all our data from both families.  We rejoiced even more that we would be able to shower with our own shampoo and brush our teeth and such, and I was finally able to take my medicine.  The rest of Saturday was relatively uneventful.  I got to watch the two basketball games I wanted to see, and we both got a little homework done.  The next morning, we met with the second family, gathered all the information and did all the activities we needed to get done, then stopped for lunch before heading back to the first family's house.  To make the trip even more unpleasant overall, the first family smoked in the house on both days.  Now my colleague and I do not smoke and we especially do not like to be around the smoke.  It's a personal preference that usually isn't an issue.  This time, though, it was.  By the time we finished all our data collection, all our clothes were saturated in cigarette smoke.  Even the shirt I'd tried to keep away from the other clothes smelled of it (I always bring an extra shirt and such, just in case we get delayed, so I was able to keep one remotely clean - my colleague wasn't so lucky). 
     Once we were finished at the families' houses, we drove around our elbow to get to our thumb to get the right car to get to Champaign.  I was driving (and had been throughout the trip), which was great until we were about 45 minutes from the hotel.  At that point, my digestive system decided it didn't like something I ate, so I was miserable for the last part of the drive.  I didn't get sick, but the other option for the stomach to deal with such a situation isn't too pleasant either.  I fervently hoped it was a very short-lived bout of food poisoning (I was relieved when I woke up Monday feeling alright).  We collapsed into bed around 10pm, exhausted from a long day of working with two kids who have Fragile X Syndrome.  The night was short, because our flight was scheduled to take off at 6:45 Monday morning.  We awoke and made it to the airport on time, though we weren't able to get any breakfast.  Finally, after changing planes in Chicago and driving the hour home from the airport in Kansas City, we made it safely home around 11:30am.  I scarfed down some lunch and gratefully fell into my own bed for a long nap.

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Fast forward two weeks:  I'm scheduled to see two families in the Carolinas this weekend.  Delta, however, called me at 11pm last night to say they had canceled our flight to Charlotte through Atlanta because of the snowstorm that hit the Southeast.  So instead of being en route I'm sitting at home (don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the extra 'weekend' time!!).  My other colleague (the guy this time) didn't get a call from Delta, so he didn't know the flights were canceled until he read my text (which I sent last night) this morning.  I guess I'm the 'weird' one who checks the weather and flight status before trips, because I wasn't a bit surprised the flights were canceled.
     Delta will change our flights without a fee, but our only option is to take the same flights at the same time tomorrow.  Well, that's great, but we are supposed to see a family at 10am tomorrow.  Unfortunately, we've had to just cancel that family for now.  We'll fly into Charlotte then drive to Apex, which is near Raleigh & Durham, to see the second family, then we'll fly home from Raleigh-Durham as planned late Sunday night.  That's assuming that Atlanta can figure out how to deal with the snow before tomorrow afternoon....